Got 8800 GTX

[ViperJohn]

Guys you are better off using the standard 575/900 Mhz bios and over clocking it to 630/1000

rather than using the XFX XXX 630/1000 bios. The reason is the core shader clock.

 

The XFX XXX bios shader clock is 1350Mhz which is the same as the standard 575/900 bios.

When you OC the standard bios up to 630 you get a 1458Mhz shader clock and a faster card.

 

Viper

[Magel]

Guys you are better off using the standard 575/900 Mhz bios and over clocking it to 630/1000

rather than using the XFX XXX 630/1000 bios. The reason is the core shader clock.

 

The XFX XXX bios shader clock is 1350Mhz which is the same as the standard 575/900 bios.

When you OC the standard bios up to 630 you get a 1458Mhz shader clock and a faster card.

 

Viper

 

Thanks for the advice Viper ! I will give that a go.....

 

Ok spent all morning benching, flashing and waiting....and heres the results, was very supprised by the Vista results.....quite disappointing I though they'd be better, though this is the first chipset driver package no doubt they will evolve.....(Used the nforce_680i_sli_winvista32_15.00_english_whql package)

 

Vista Stock BIOS Before Chipset Drivers (NON Sli) - Score: 11363

 

Vista Stock BIOS After Chipset Drivers (NON Sli) - Score: 11114

 

Vista XXX BIOS Before Chipset Drivers (NON Sli) - Score: 11387

 

Vista XXX BIOS After Chipset Drivers (NON Sli) - Score: 10678 :confused:

[CharmedLover84]

::has a simple answer for your ??? head:: Vista is stupid? LOL j/k

[CapnKirk]

You got a score of 10866 3DMarks in 06 with a $1000 cpu and faster ram with a pair of 8800GTX's in SLi mode.

Did I get that right?

 

I got 10511 with a $275 cpu, slower ram and just one 8800GTX.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1115609

 

I don't get it. :confused:

 

Got XFX 8800 GTX.

 

Packages:

 

XFX 8800 GTX code:

 

XFX 7900 GTX XXX code:

 

Compared to XFX 7900 GTX XXX (1):

 

Compared to XFX 7900 GTX XXX (2):

 

8800 on the board top:

 

8800 on the board (west):

 

8800 on the board (east):

 

8800 on the board (north):

 

8800 on the board (south 1):

 

8800 on the board (south 2):

 

8800 on the board (in the case):

 

Driver:

• ForceWare Release 95
  
• Version: 97.02
  
• Release Date: November 8, 2006
  

NVIDIA nTune:

• Supported OSes: Windows XP,
  
• Windows XP x64 Edition
  
• Version: 5.05.18.00
  
• Release Date: November 8, 2006
  

GPU Temperatures at idle (readings from NVIDIA Monitor):

• GPU1: 58 °C
  
• GPU2: 59 °C
  

Fans:

• SYstem: 31889 RPM
  
• nForce: 675 PRM
  
• Aux2: 18 RPM
  

3DMark06 Score:

Project Name: 4x_06_v142

Main Test Results:

• 3DMark Score 10866 3DMarks
  
• SM 2.0 Score 4657 Marks
  
• SM 3.0 Score 6111 Marks
  
• CPU Score 2077 Marks
  

Impressions of XFX 8800 GTX:

- The length: longer than the board…

- The required power supply: my PSU (PC Power & Cooling, INC Turbo-Cool 1KW) has only two 6-pin PCI-E card power supply connectors. I had to use the 4 pin to 6 pin connectors. After I connected power connectors to the cards, drives and board in my system, almost all power supply connectors of the PSU are used up…

- The temperatures at idle are higher than these of 7900’s (GPU #1: 47 – 49 °C && GPU #2: 35 – 38 °C)**.

Fan noise: I do not hear the difference in the noise in my system (my stsem is very noisy, anyway…).

- Game play with 8800: very smooth and did not experience the frame drop, so far; I just played F.E.A.R, PainKiller and UT2004 for 3 hours (I have not played as hard and long as I could yet…). After played, the GPU temperatures were; GPU #1: 64 °C && GPU #2: 65 °C.

3DMark06 score: …lower than I expected (the test was performed without over-clocking the cards). The score with XFX 7900 GTX with the same CPU && board was 9653;

Main Test Results

- 3DMark Score 9653 3DMarks

- SM 2.0 Score 4549 Marks

- SM 3.0 Score 4541 Marks

- CPU Score 2084 Marks

I better try over-clocking 8800…

 

**About the 7900’s GPU temperatures in my system, I wrote in my post to the thread: “Other Cooling - High CPU temperature - FX-62 && NF590 combo (http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67863)";

GPU temperatures at idle in my system (the temperatures reading from NVIDA Setting dialog):

• GPU #1: 47 – 49 °C

• GPU #2: 35 – 38 °C

Regarding why the temperatures differ by about 11 °C, my theory is that the GPU #1 temperature is higher because the GPU #1 card is located over the NIVIDA C51EX heat sink.

...however, the 8800’s GPU temperatures are almost same; only 1 °C difference between the GPU #1 and #2. My “theory” was wrong. Though I am not planning to go back to 7900 GTX, I wonder what caused the temperature difference…

[rainwood]

I don't get it.

No, me, neither.

 

…I did not think that this thread get this longer, and did not think that I upgrade the CPU, mainboard & memory, either, when I started this thread.

The score(s) (& the pictures, too) that you quoted was the one(s) I got in my previous CPU, mainbaord & memory:

• CPU: AMD Athlon FX-64
  
• Mainbaord: DFI NF590
  
• Memory: Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400PRO
  

I think that I should update my previous messages with the note which system set-up, previous or current, the tests were performed.

 

$1000 cpu and faster ram

BTW, time flies (& the price of CPU drops).

I bought FX-62 for $645 (brand new retail box) at eBay in the September, 2006 & x6800 (brand new retail box) for $775 at eBay in November, 2006. I wonder how much these CPU would cost now…

[Magel]

::has a simple answer for your ??? head:: Vista is stupid? LOL j/k

 

lol...For now atleast....

 

No, me, neither.

 

I read a review some where that said that your wasting your time with 8800GTX Sli unless you have atleast a 3ghz cpu cause of bottlenecks.

 

From what I understand there were quite a few problems with the 97.02 drivers with which you ran 3d mark, would very much like to see your scores using the 97.92 drivers and your new system.....

[rainwood]

Since I read the article ("25 Signs of Perfection: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX in 25 Benchmarks (page 27) ForceWare 97.02 – How Far from Ideal?), I was possessed with the idea that the driver installation/un-instillation could be the cause of the ‘low’ 3DMark06 scores of the XXX-BIOS cards. After I did a google search, I got the driver cleaner software: Driver Cleaner.NET.

I just followed the software’s driver clean-up procedure:

1. Uninstalled nTune, graphic card & chipset drivers using the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.
   
2. Rebooted in Safe mode
   
3. Ran Driver Cleaner.NET: selected “nForce Chipset” & “nVidia” in “Cleaning Selection in the software.
   
4. Ran “Cab Cleaner” of the software: selected “Driver.cab” in “Cleaning Selection in the software.
   
5. Restarted the OS.
   
6. Installed the latest chipset & graphic card drivers and nTune*
   

 

Then, here’s what the software did (from the log file):

--------------------------------------------------------

---- Driver Cleaner.NET 3.1.0.0

---- 08-02-2007 -- 17:52:12

--------------------------------------------------------

-- nVidia 1.0.27

-- nForce Chipset 1.0.11

<<<< nVidia >>>>

File Deleted C:WINDOWSPrefetchNWIZ.EXE-2D0F9FBC.pf

File Deleted C:WINDOWSPrefetchNVUDISP.EXE-0787D243.pf

File Deleted C:WINDOWSsystem32NV4_Disp.dll

File Deleted C:WINDOWSsystem32DriversNV4_Mini.sys

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002ServicesNVSvc

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002EnumRootLEGACY_NVSVC

File Deleted C:WINDOWSPrefetchNVUDISP.EXE-0787D243.pf

File Deleted C:WINDOWSPrefetchNWIZ.EXE-2D0F9FBC.pf

<<<< nForce Chipset >>>>

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHARDWAREACPIDSDTNVIDIA

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHARDWAREACPIFADTNvidia

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHARDWAREACPIRSDTNvidia

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionNetworkCards12

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlDeviceClasses{d6c5066e-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{d6c5066e-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlDeviceClasses{d6c50671-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{d6c50671-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlDeviceClasses{d6c50674-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{d6c50674-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlDeviceClasses{fbf6f530-07b9-11d2-a71e-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{fbf6f530-07b9-11d2-a71e-0000f8004788}

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002ControlDeviceClasses{d6c5066e-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{d6c5066e-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002ControlDeviceClasses{d6c50671-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{d6c50671-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002ControlDeviceClasses{d6c50674-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{d6c50674-72c1-11d2-9755-0000f8004788}

Registry Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002ControlDeviceClasses{fbf6f530-07b9-11d2-a71e-0000f8004788}##?#SW#{a7c7a5b0-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}#{9B365890-165F-11D0-A195-0020AFD156E4}#{fbf6f530-07b9-11d2-a71e-0000f8004788}

 

What the software did for ‘cleaning-up” mostly was deleting the registry key values.

I am a Java developer, and I do not have experience in the hardware driver development & writing the installer/un-installer using the third party tools (such as InstallShield). I wonder why the driver’s un-installer did not delete the registry key values that the driver’s installer seemed to set. Or these registry key values deleted by the driver cleaner software were not necessary to clean up after the driver was uninstalled?

 

Anyway, I did what I could do regarding cleaning up, so-called, the driver installation/un-installation mess (, though I am not even sure if such thing was the bottleneck and I did not even know what I was doing).

 

*ForceWare Release 95

Version: 97.92

Release Date: January 10, 2007

WHQL Certified

 

nTune:

Version: 5.05.25.00

Release Date: January 25, 2007

 

nForce 680i SLI - Windows XP (32-Bit)

Version: 9.53

Release Date: November 8, 2006

WHQL Certified

[rainwood]

I think that you guys might be wondering why I am doing this.

Please let me to explain why.

I wanted to build a game box that allows me to play the games with the better graphic settings without having to overclock the CPU. GPU, mainboard and memory. So I got the fastest* CPU (now it is not), graphic cards & mainboard available in the market. However, after a few months later, I got the news that NVIDIA allowed the graphic card manufactures to sell the over-clocked 8800 GTX cards (“DIY-Street Forums > Hardware Avenue > Video Cards > Nvidia - XFX 8800 Factory overclocked” thread). I made a contact with the XFX support, telling them that I felt betrayed; if I knew that the factory-overclocked version of the card coming, there would be no doubt I’d buy them. Next day they called me. You know what I was told? They told me that I could over-clock the cards and can get the (almost) same performance of the XXX 8800 cards. I know, I said, “without having to overclock GPU”, but I decided to do overclocking the graphic cards.

So, I did that using the software (nTune). I was not satisfied. Then, I found Raphie overclock the cards by the BIOS update (“DIY-Street Forums > Hardware Avenue > Video Cards > Nvidia - So i flashed my XFX 8800GTX to a 8800GTX XXX”). Why not try Raphie’s way? ...I did not see the performance gain as much as I expected by doing the BIOS update to the XXX one’s.

I was trying to find out what could be wrong, but I did not know if this might be as good as I could get from the XXX 8800 GTX cards in SLI, either.

I wanted to compare...

 

Here comes Magel.

Magel’s system spec. is quoted below:

nForce 680i SLI (122-CK-NF68-AR) P24 BIOS (2.053.66) (9.53 nforce Driver Package)

Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6700 2.66Ghz 4x2Mb Cache (1.35v)

Corsair Dominator 8500C5D DDR2 2 GIG Kit 5-5-5-15 (2.2v)

2x Seagate Barracuda 250gb (RAID 0)

2x XFX Geforce 8800GTX's (BIOS 60.80.08.00.38) (97.92 forceware Driver Package)

On Board Sound

Enermax Galaxy 1000w PSU

Windows XP Home SP2 (All Updates) V.2002

ntune V.5.05.25.00

I have no other tuning apps......

Magel’s system spec. is similar to mine except the CPU.

Thanks for Magel, I got the test scores to compare.

You can view my 3d mark results in more detail here at the 3d mark website -

(These test were done in XP)

 

Stock Settings

 

WIth XXX BIOS

 

Ran 3DMark06 with the default settings.

Scores available for viewing:

• Name: 7x_P24_OC_01
  
• Date: 2007-02-10
  
• User: 1147934
  

3DMark Score:

• Magel: 14207 3DMarks
  
• Rainwood: 13325 3DMarks
  

SM 2.0 Score:

• Magel: 5468 Marks
  
• Rainwood: 5977 Marks
  

SM 3.0 Score:

• Magel: 6858 Marks
  
• Rainwood: 7283 Marks
  

CPU Score:

• Magel: 3942 Marks
  
• Rainwood: 2525 Marks
  

…still did not see “wow” increase in the test scores.

Is this really what I can get from the XXX 8800 GTX cards in SLI?

 

Here comes ViperJohn;

The XFX XXX bios shader clock is 1350Mhz which is the same as the standard 575/900 bios.

When you OC the standard bios up to 630 you get a 1458Mhz shader clock and a faster card.

Viper

ViperJoh, I need your guidance on how to overclok the shader domain GPU.

 

 

*money is always a problem; I had to compromise on the memory. Also no momey to get QX6700, either…

[Magel]

Modifed my video card BIOS using the Nvidia BIOS editor program, manualy set the frequencys -

 

GPU Core - 625mhz, Shader Clock - 1450mhz, Memory Clock - 1000mhz

 

Had some problems with RivaTuner as it isnt fully compatible with the 97.92 drivers yet. Managed to overclock with the program but when I tried to set the card back to its stock settings it wouldn't work properly. Ran 3d mark after trying to reset to stock settings and my 3d mark score went down into the 9000's. Uninstalled RivaTuner, uninstalled drivers, and used the Driver Cleaner.NET utility in safe mode....Reinstalled my drivers and every thing was fine afterwards...

 

Also overclocked the CPU from 266*10 (2.66ghz) to 310*11 (3.4ghz) without increasing the Vcore. Ran 3d Mark 06 again and heres the new score -

 

Stock Settings (12740 marks)

 

CPU + Video Card O/C (17364 marks)

[rainwood]

Modifed my video card BIOS using the Nvidia BIOS editor program, manualy set the frequencys -

Did you get the BIOS editor from here?

[Magel]

Got it from here -

 

Nvidia BIOS Editor V3.2

 

Heres what I edited -

 

[rainwood]

Thank you, Magel. I will download and give it a try.

 

625 GPU Core? Not 630? Did you have the stability problems with these settings? I just do not know what shader value ( and GPU Core & memory, too) would be the best for performance && stability…

 

BTW, I reported my scores to the “DIY-Street Forums > Games & Software Square > PC Games > Games - Unofficial F.E.A.R. Performance Test Chart & Discussion Thread”; rainwood @ 02-10-2007, 10:34 PM. If you have the game, it’d be interesting to try.